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    Practical Pottery: 40 Pottery Projects for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plates, Bowls, and More (Pottery & Ceramics Sculpting Techniques)
    Practical Pottery: 40 Pottery Projects for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plates, Bowls, and More (Pottery & Ceramics Sculpting Techniques)
    Practical Pottery: 40 Pottery Projects for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plates, Bowls, and More (Pottery & Ceramics Sculpting Techniques)
    Ebook211 pages1 hour

    Practical Pottery: 40 Pottery Projects for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plates, Bowls, and More (Pottery & Ceramics Sculpting Techniques)

    By Jon Schmidt

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The “secret sauce” to this is helping the reader create pottery that will be useful. Pottery that can be used for coffee, beer, gardening, eating, storage, organization, baking/cooking and more. Once you’ve mastered the creativity of creating potery, Jon uses his background as a business owner of three highly successful coffee shops to guide you on the business side of selling and distributing your art.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTMA Press
    Release dateOct 27, 2020
    ISBN9781642502237
    Practical Pottery: 40 Pottery Projects for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plates, Bowls, and More (Pottery & Ceramics Sculpting Techniques)
    Author

    Jon Schmidt

    Jon Schmidt is a potter and entrepreneur who owns the Mocha Monkey coffeehouses in Minnesota, where everything is served on handmade pottery. Jon is also a well-know YouTuber (www.youtube.com/jonthepotter) and pottery influencer, creating videos weekly to change the pottery industry. He strives to impact the world by inspiring others to live out their dreams and make the world unique, one pot at a time.

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    Reviews for Practical Pottery

    4.5/5

    5 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great practical guide with easy-to-follow pictures, gives a great high level overview of the process
    • 5/5
      Loved it, has very good information overall and I loved the pictures demonstrating the process and finished pieces.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book for beginners to get a basic understanding. The projects in the book have detailed explanations and are all great projects to try out.
    • 2/5
      Very very Basic. Not well produced as a book. Pass

    Book preview

    Practical Pottery - Jon Schmidt

    Copyright © 2020 by Jon Schmidt.

    Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

    Cover Design: Elina Diaz

    Cover Photo/illustration: Jon Schmidt

    Layout & Design: Elina Diaz

    Mango is an active supporter of authors’ rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.

    Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the author’s intellectual property. Please honor the author’s work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our author’s rights.

    For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:

    Mango Publishing Group

    2850 S Douglas Road, 2nd Floor

    Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

    info@mango.bz

    For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at sales@mango.bz. For trade and wholesale sales, please contact Ingram Publisher Services at customer.service@ingramcontent.com or +1.800.509.4887.

    Practical Pottery: Pottery Projects and Techniques for Creating and Selling Mugs, Cups, Plates, Bowls, and More

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2020934377

    ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-222-0, (ebook) 978-1-64250-223-7

    BISAC category code: CRA028000, CRAFTS & HOBBIES / Pottery & Ceramics

    Printed in the United States of America

    To my children.

    Table of Contents

    Pottery and Parenthood

    Introduction

    Why I Love Pottery

    Why Handmade Matters

    What Do Potters Need, Both Tangible and Intangible?

    Pottery Basics

    Tools

    Kilns

    Setting Up a Studio—A Space to Create

    Clay

    Mugs

    Handles—Can You Handle It?

    Bowls

    Plates

    Planters

    Berry Bowl (Strainer/Colander)

    Chip and Dip

    Coffee Pour Over

    Pitchers

    Tri Bowl

    Glazing and Finishing

    How to Find Yourself as an Artist

    The Business Side of Potting

    Conclusion

    FAQs

    About the Author

    Pottery and Parenthood

    Being a potter is like being a parent.

    For a short time, you care for them,

    You love them,

    You mold them,

    You guide them through their life.

    There are many stages.

    In the beginning things are very messy, you have to get your hands dirty.

    Eventually things become routine.

    Things get hot, but they almost always make it through.

    Sometimes they turn out a little different than expected, but you actually love it!

    And then when your time is up, they are finished.

    They are ready to move on.

    All you can do is hope that the shaping you did, and the vision you had for them, is enough for them to go out and live a full and happy life.

    A life doing what they were meant to do…make others happy.

    My hope for you is that you will discover what you love, do it forever, and have it bring joy to the world.

    Introduction

    Another pottery book? Does the world really need another book about ceramics and pottery?

    Hold on a second. You haven’t even read it yet. You know what they say: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Or, in this case, don’t judge a book by its topic.

    So…what is this pottery book and what makes it different?

    Well I am so glad you asked…

    My name is Jon Schmidt, and I am obsessed with making functional pottery that can be used on a daily basis. My family and I own three coffee shops called Mocha Monkey, and we use handmade pots for EVERYTHING! If you come get a coffee, we have twelve, sixteen, and twenty ounce mugs for you to enjoy your latte in. If you order a delicious chicken and wild rice soup, we have sixteen ounce cups and twenty ounce bowls for you to enjoy and admire. Even our tables are adorned with handmade planters and plants arranged by the local floral shop. If you like what you are using, you can buy it or find one on the shelves just like it.

    My point in telling you this is not to make Mocha Monkey sound amazing (even though it is). My point is that handmade pottery can be used for everything! From cups to mugs, plates to bowls, teapots, teacups, beer steins, candle holders, and so much more! The possibilities of form, function, and finish are truly endless!

    So back to this book thing… Jon, why write a book about it?

    Well, the truth is that pottery and ceramics are traditionally a very complex mix of expensive equipment, complicated chemistry, and a lot of recipes that look like they might be written in a different language. There are lots of books about what’s inside clay and glazes, how to make different clay and glaze, and what happens at exactly certain temperatures inside the kiln. This is NOT that book! Yes, that stuff is important, and yes you can go as deep down the rabbit hole as you want ‘til you end up with a never ending chemistry lesson. I am here to tell you that you do not have to know everything to fall in love with clay, pottery, and making handmade art that you can use!

    And while, yes, fancy electric wheels and brand-new kilns are expensive, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to make a great mug (or bowl, or cup).

    This book is:

    •A brief introduction for beginners to pottery and ceramics

    •A testament to how amazing it is to create functional pieces you can use

    •A guidebook for how to think about starting to sell and distribute your pieces

    •A compendium of different projects, techniques, and ideas for anyone, whether you have thrown zero pieces or 100,000

    It’s amazingly satisfying to drink from mugs that you crafted, to eat meals off plates that you spun on the wheel, and to see your family and friends enjoying their lives using ware that came from your hands. Every pot you make and others use is like sharing a little bit of your story.

    Most importantly, everything tastes better out of handmade pottery.

    My Journey into Clay

    One of the most common questions I get from people is, how did you get into clay?

    My first experience with clay was similar to many others: a high school ceramics class. I remember it very clearly. My first teacher was Mr. Dorn, the sweetest old man you’ll ever meet, who cared so much about sharing his love for clay. As with many high school courses it was about fifty minutes long, which means the first ten to fifteen minutes of the class was setting up and the last ten to fifteen minutes was cleaning up. This left about twenty to twenty-five minutes to actually work in clay…not long enough. After finishing a few ceramics courses in high school, my pieces were…terrible. Yup, they were heavy, off-center, rough around the edges, and I felt the same way about ceramics as I did about lunch period: a fun way to hang out with friends and get a little messy.

    After high school ended, I went to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, to play basketball. I quickly met my wife, who was also a basketball player and an art major. After a year of basketball, I came to terms with the fact that I would not be playing in the NBA and that I had to see what the world had to offer outside of playing sports. Two years into my business management degree, I decided to study abroad in India on a

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